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New Tactics Tools generated great interest on the boards of partner organizations of CIAZO and consequently the number of participants at the workshops was greater than expected.

The CIAZO Network is composed of eight (8) grassroots partner organizations in El Salvador which have the common purpose of contributing to community development of human, social, cultural and productive capital in rural communities identified as severe poverty communities. CIAZO applies the approaches and methods of Popular Education with gender equity and environmental sustainability. Since last year, the CIAZO Network has developed a capacity building process with the boards of directors of each organization in order to strengthen their actions.

Issue focus and/or target population:  “The organizations that make up the CIAZO network have analyzed the socio-political situation in the country, as well as the role that the popular organizations are playing. They concluded that it is necessary to resume the struggle by communities for their rights, with specific actions of political advocacy, because after the signing of the Peace Accords in El Salvador, some communities have been falling into a state of conformism that has generated the disrespect for the basic rights of individuals. This requires the use of tools adapted to the new time in the country, such as those developed by New Tactics. It is in this context that arises the need for such [New Tactics] tools, to reproduce the work of advocacy.”

Aim/methods for project: Two representatives of the CIAZO Network technical team participated in the New Tactics workshop held in Guatemala in July 2008 sponsored by the American Jewish World Service for an association of Mayan bi-lingual and bi-cultural educators. This project aims to train a broader “technical team” within CIAZO in the New Tactics methodology and tools (specifically tactical mapping); and, to subsequently utilize that technical team to train the board of directors of CIAZO, and the eight member organizations’ board of directors in the CIAZO Network in the New Tactics tools  and methodology in order to advance their skills and abilities for collective political advocacy.

Outcome: CIAZO successfully implemented seven workshops during the grant period. In total, seven organizations’ boards of directors and supervisory boards were trained on New Tactics methodology and tools – 104 participants – 64 men and 40 women.

CIAZO identified several important results from this project:

• The ability to train their technical staff using the tools of New Tactics for advocacy. These have been very useful in the development of work with the organizational partners in the CIAZO network. Also CIAZO has been able to take a fresh look at advocacy internally in the organization as well as externally, in the communities, and address public policy issues especially with regard to education.
• Through the workshops with the boards of the partner organizations, CIAZO has reviewed their programs and identified their challenges and capacity to achieve their vision and mission. The organizations, as cooperatives and community organizations are seeking to achieve higher quality outcomes for the people they serve.
• It allowed partner organizations to identify advocacy actions in the public sphere that would open up as a result of the change of government.

This training has positioned the CIAZO network for stronger impact in the rural communities in which it works.  They are also striving to articulate advocacy efforts nationally. For this to happen, each partner organization that has been trained has to achieve the objectives specified in its action plan and to define joint actions as a network in the face of public policy change needed to improve the living conditions of the population. This will especially be the case in education and will improve the output of the population that they work with. The anticipated impact will be revisited in the actions that are defined in the Annual Operating Plan of CIAZO network and its technical team.

CIAZO shared a story of success in their final report from of the workshop participants.  CIAZO explains,

“During one of the discussions generated during the training process, in the municipality of Suchitoto, a participant mentioned that the group of women where she had been involved used incorrectly advocacy strategies and tells that she now understood what they had been attempting to influence an actor who they claimed had ‘power of decision’ over the problems faced by women midwives. At the end of that experience the relations were strained and they did not achieve the expected results, and the problem continues. With the new tools she has better ideas to change their tactics to affect the problem.”

New Tactics Tools generated great interest on the boards of partner organizations of CIAZO and consequently the number of participants at the workshops was greater than expected.  CIAZO writes, “In total 104 people participated, which is extremely important to us as there are now even more people then expected that know the tools that will share them in their work in communities and cooperatives.”